1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to systems and methods for decoding electronic files, particularly, such files containing digitally-encoded audio information.
2. Description of Related Art
Many computer applications afford the use of digitally-encoded audio files to enhance the value of the application to the user. Some educational and entertainment computer applications, for example, rely on the use of digital audio files to enhance the user's experience. The problem with affording the use of digital audio files is that, generally, personal computers do not have the necessary internal circuitry to decode such digital data. This requires the user to purchase and install additional dedicated processing hardware, known as "sound cards," to perform the decoding and outputting of digital audio files. In addition, the current lack of industry standards for the design of such sound cards results in individual sound cards being dedicated to decoding a limited variety of differently encoded audio files. This results in the user having to purchase various sound cards to perform different types of decoding, further increasing the cost to the user of using digital audio. Accordingly, there is a need for decoding digital audio files without using hardware dedicated solely to such use.